Reddy to be Special Secretary Home

M R Reddy is being tipped to be Special Secretary Home in Government of India.1967 batch IPS officer of Maharastra cadre Reddy who is currently posted in Berlin is returning to India soon. The post has fallen vacant following the superannuation of UT cadre 1967 batch IPS officer R K Sharma.

Muttoo to return Uttaranchal

Uttaranchal Government is keen for the return of 1977 batch IAS officer Sunil Kumar Mutto who is on deputation to the Government of India.

Chennai to be HQ of Pension Authority

Headquarters of the proposed Pension Authority if sources in the Government of India are to be believed would be in Chennai.

Ghosh gets admission for MBA

Arijit Ghosh (IFS, 1997) has got admission to Harvard University for MBA Program is leaving shortly for the same.He is now Second Secretary in Beijing. WIll he get study leave before completing seven years of service?

Narang to return MP

Manmeet Singh Narang (IPS, 1993, MP) has been asked to return. He took study leave for one year to do MBA.Thereafter for two years he had been working in private sector.

Subramaniam is new Chief Secretary of Bihar

Krishna Arjun Harihara Subramaniam is the new Chief Secretary of Bihar.He is 1968 batch IAS officer.

IPS changes in MP

Madan Rane has been appointed IG Rewa. Swarn Singh IG Rewa has been shifted to APTC Indore.

IAS changes in UP

Sanjeev Mittal has been appointed Secretary Minority Welfare department.Aradhana Johri will be Secretary Dairy Development.

IAS changes in Tamil Nadu

T P Nagarajan will be new Vigilance Commissioner.N S Palaniappan has been made Secretary PWD.C V Sankar has been shifted to TN Power Finance Corporaion.V K Subbaraj has been given additional charge of School Education.

Shangari to succeed Bali in Maharastra

With OP Bali due retirement in November 2003, SM Shangari appears to be the front-runner once again for
the post of DGP, Maharashtra even though its only been a month since OP Bali was appointed DGP. However,
sources say that OP Bali is trying his level best to get an extension which is unlikely.

IPS transfers in Haryana

Balbir Singh has been appointed SP Telecom.Prathi Singh has been shifted to 3RD battalion.

Anurag Goyal to be MD AI

Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Anurag Goyal is also going to head Air India.He is 1972 batch IAS officer of UP cadre.

Sohan Singh gets additional charge

DG Jails Sohan Singh has been given additional charge of Home Guards and Fire Services in Himachal Pradesh.

SP and DM gets Z category security

Believe it or not Mohammad Mustafa and A Satish Ganesh DM and SP respectively of Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh have been given Z category security.

New SD Chennai AIR

H R Krishnamurthy is the new Station Director All India Radio, Chennai.

Forum

The Rule of the Robbercracy

By Abhinav Kumar

The wicked lack goodness, the evil despise it.

As a young probationer in Mussoorie not so long ago, my contemporaries would testify to a shared sense of smugness. The UPSC exam, never an easy task was, in the post Mandal era, a more daunting climb than ever and we had made it. That we thought was in itself enough to make us special. Add to that the visible deference accorded to us by the extended family of friends and relatives and without being in Mussoorie it was enough to put us on a collective cloud nine. We were special, we were meant to be special and, as part of an elite unparalleled in its powers and privileges, the then ongoing Jain hawala and other sordid sagas notwithstanding, we were going to do special things. Or so it seemed.To be sure, there were moments of self doubt. In my case, with a Doon School and Oxford education followed by stints in advertising and journalism, this background was not merely eclectic, it was downright incongruous and therefore posed more than a few questions from my peers, most of whom were from mofussil towns of the cow belt. They lost no time in letting me know that I was wasting my time and I had better prepare myself for a rude awakening. I was reliably informed that I was at least fifty years too late in joining the system. I mistook this concern for petty jealousy and carried on. I wrestled with glasses of rum and books exploring the Idea of India in equal measure. Then of course there were the guest lectures, in my opinion the most interesting part of the course. Distinguished men and women from all walks of life came to share their own experiences. They spelt hope and gloom, depending on which part of the message one was receptive to. On balance I was on the side of hope. Until a class in public administration taken by a senior IAS officer, who posed the question, "What one action would you take to solve the problems of this country?" The replies that came were glib and farcical and he paused for a moment before replying, Just blow up all the Secretariats in all the capitals of the country, make sure no one survives and we would have made a promising start in solving the problems of this country." There was a moment of silence followed by a few suppressed giggles. I was not sure how to react and as I recollect, my immediate response was that it was a throwaway remark not worthy of reply or reflection. After six years of active service, with hindsight if I were to pick a moment when the seeds of doubt were sown that would be it.In any case I survived training at Mussoorie and Hyderabad with most of my fanciful notions about the mission and role of the civil services largely intact. In brief these were that the necessity for the Civil Services as recorded in the debates of the Constituent Assembly was largely based on a sound understanding of the social and historical needs of India. The bureaucracy in this viewpoint was critical to the project of taken by a senior IAS officer, who posed the question, "What one action
would you take to solve the problems of this country?" The replies that came were glib and farcical and he paused for a moment before replying, "Just blow up all the Secretariats in all the capitals of the country, make sure no one survives and we would have made a promising start in solving the problems of this country." There was a moment of silence followed by a few suppressed giggles. I was not sure how to react and as I recollect, my immediate response was that it was a throwaway remark not worthy of reply or reflection. After six years of active service, with hindsight if I were to pick a moment when the seeds of doubt were sown that would be it.In any case I survived training at Mussoorie and Hyderabad with most of my fanciful notions about the mission and role of the civil services largely intact. In brief these were that the necessity for the Civil Services as recorded in the debates of the Constituent Assembly was largely based on a sound understanding of the social and historical needs of India. The bureaucracy in this viewpoint was critical to the project of modernizing India as the political class that had evolved to lead the Independence struggle was constitutionally incapable of carrying out this mission. This, as per the historical record, also appears to be the view of the two stalwarts Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel. The Proconsuls of Empire overnight became the Regents of an infant Democracy. The corollary of this was that the privileges and powers that accrued to the bureaucracy were a necessary precondition for its existence. The senior civil servants of the time, who knew a good thing when they saw it, on the face of it enthusiastically embraced the underlying assumption of Nehruvian socialism that the poor and the dispossessed of this country depended on the bureaucracy alone to secure equality and justice that would otherwise be denied to them by rapacious political and business elites. With my modest training in Classical Greek Philosophy I too extravagantly assumed that somehow this version of Plato's Guardians, despite its Colonial parentage would deliver on its historical role. Indeed the reigning myth that I too imbibed at Mussoorie was thatthe success of India's socialist and democratic experiment of 50 years was largely due to the success of these enlightened souls in saving what they could from the politician and the capitalist. This ostensibly socialist aspect was, as I understood later, critical to the belief system of what now my previous employer, the India Today magazine, has immortalized in its cover story of July 07, 2003 as the Robbercracy. This uncomfortable public criticism, earlier encountered as self-doubt, is now impossible to ignore that like it or not, side by side with my entry into the IPS, I too have been initiated and inducted into the Robbercracy. How well I survive and thrive in its clutches would now depend on how successfully I was able to internalize its key rites and rituals. As even any armchair anthropologist would know, the whole point about rituals is that once their original aim is obscured, at best, their performance becomes an end in itself, and at worst, they become a convenient way to disguise a more sinister purpose. Apply this simple insight into the workings of the Robbercracy, and a clearer picture of its nature shall become somewhat discernible.As a growing child, and then as an adolescent, first when I saw depictions of state authority in popular culture, be it films, television, theatre or literature, they verged on the twin extremes of object of ridicule and an object of hatred mixed with fear. One tended to look at both with a touch of incredulousness. The immaturity of my thought stands woefully exposed. There is nothing in the popular imagination that can match the real-life absurdity and depravity of the Robbercracy. It impoverishes, humiliates, exploits and mocks the daily lives of all but a handful of our Republic's citizens. And who are these fortunate exceptions? They are the chosen few, direct relatives and beneficiaries of the Robbercracy, either through ties of kinship or through the callous camaraderie of loot. Joining the Robbercracy and not joining these rites is also unacceptable as it threatens the self-esteem of the Robbercrats. Thieves who wield power are sensitive people you see. They feel hurt if someone points a finger at them. The world of 1984 is only permitted as literature. As it turns out reality is far stranger. A glorified self-image of a virtuous past, present and future is vital to our survival . We would be comically absurd, if we weren't so absolutely evil probably beyond all hopes of regret or redemption. Ironically, I suspect that in the eyes of the common man, we are both at the same time. Rarely has a nation's constitution has by design erected such a grand edifice for self exploitation, and provided incessant justification for it in its legislative and administrative framework. That too, all in the name of the People. Surely that is worth a smile.The first principle of any bureaucracy is hierarchy based purely or largely on age. The reason professed for this is that experience and maturity are largely a function of time spent in office. This ties in well also with the deference given to age in our traditional discourse. This hierarchy is a gentle pyramid in the civilian bureaucracy and a steep one in the military. One's batch or course number then becomes a critical component on finding your place in the order of things. So, for example, I a minion of the 1996 batch should not even dream to presuppose that I could know or do anything better than my venerable seniors of the batches above. For the record, I hold all my seniors in equal degree of deep reverence and esteem that increases progressively with their seniority. Of course I am completely free to treat all those after the 1996 batch with the same contempt and smugness. As one progresses the number of people above me in this pyramid of privilege shall decline and the number of people below me will increase. This single principle pervades every single aspect of a bureaucrat's life. Who answers the telephone in what manner, who sits where in a vehicle, who shall arrive and leave in what order in a public or private gathering, who will speak and who will listen, all these weighty matters shall be determined by the seniority principle. Merit, integrity and the basic standards of civilized conduct must all be subordinate to this ritual bound by the tyranny of chronology. It is ironical if not outright absurd that the avowed custodians of our constitutional democracy should themselves be organized in a strikingly medieval manner. This fundamental contradiction at the heart of the raison d'etre for the bureaucracy is seldom acknowledged let alone addressed with any critical acumen. As a Philosophy undergraduate, one was taught that self awareness, even amongst malevolent and predatory creatures, was the first condition for intelligence. Perhaps seniority is self awareness. (This article is purely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to living or dead persons, and organic or fossilized bureaucracies is purely coincidental and, therefore, not regretted.)